Tournament of Bands Prelims Results, and How Did I Do With My Predictions?

In Class B I said “the top 3 finishers will be El Paso High, Mayfield, and Riverside. This is a little tricky because there are some good bands in this class and I haven’t seen Deming or Silver this year. Still, I’ll call Riverside to take the class.”

The winners were Riverside in 1st, El Paso in 2nd, Mayfield in 3rd. Riverside won for GE, El Paso took the music and visual captions.

In class A, I said “I think the top three will be Centennial, Eastlake, and Ysleta. Again, some good bands in this class and also more New Mexico bands that we in El Paso haven’t seen that could surprise us. I think it will be a dogfight, but I’ll go with Eastlake for the top finisher and Centennial to challenge strongly for it.”

The winners were Centennial in 1st, Eastlake in 2nd, and Chapin in 3rd. Centennial took GE, Eastlake won music and visuals. I was wrong about Ysleta and Centennial did indeed make it a dogfight.

In Class AA, I said “Class AA is where things will be interesting, as always. Coronado, Hanks, Del Valle, and Americas will all be bringing it, and you have Bel Air fresh off a great showing at State. I believe the top three in this class will be from these five, with maybe Onate breaking into the mix.”

(Bel Air actually decided not to attend the contest, as their travel schedule back from state left them too little time to be prepared.)

So the AA results were Hanks in 1st, Coronado 2nd, and Americas 3rd. Hanks and Americas tied for the musical and visual captions, while Coronado took the GE caption.

Then I said ” The Greg Randall award for top New Mexico band I think will go to either Centennial or Onate. I haven’t seen either band this year, but I’ll call it for Onate because I like to live on the edge.”

The award went to Centennial.

Finally, there are the finals. I said “The top 10 scores from prelims advance, and I think most of them, as usual, will come from class AA. I say, in order of the schedule, that Centennial, Eastlake, Bel Air, Onate, Hanks, Americas, Del Valle, and Coronado will all be there. That leaves 2 spots open and I’ll say they will be filled by Volcano Vista, Franklin, or Eastwood.”

The finalists were Centennial, Eastlake, Onate, Hanks, Americas, Del Valle, Coronado, Eastwood, La Cueva, and Montwood. I missed on La Cueva and Montwood, two bands whose shows I haven’t seen this year. But overall, pretty spot on, I’d say. 8 out of 10!

Congratulations to all bands and their fine directors! Finals results will be posted when I get them!